U.S. to address India’s requests for info in cyber cases

The U.S. has said that it would take up the issue of pending requests for information from India regarding cyber cases with various departments in that country.

New Delhi has also sought appropriate technology to deal with cyber security issues, according to minutes of a meeting on U.S.-India dialogue on cyber security recently in New Delhi. The Indian delegation was led by Deputy National Security Advisor Vijay Latha Reddy. It comprised officials from Ministries of External Affairs and Home, besides those from the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The U.S. delegation was headed by Howard Schmidt, Cyber Security Coordinator at the White House.

During the meeting, the CBI representative highlighted the difficulties in getting information about the pending cases and said that several queries had been made but information was not provided even for emergency disclosures, the minutes said.

The CBI official wanted that the U.S. authorities to exercise their discretion in a positive manner and share available information either informally or using Interpol channels, it said.

After the discussions, both the countries agreed that India will provide a list of outstanding requests for information pertaining to service providers based in the U.S. and that this information would be shared.

A representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the U.S. mission in New Delhi, while highlighting the legalities involved in sharing complete information, however, pointed out that during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, information was provided to India in record time of four hours.

Mr. Schmidt agreed with the need for greater cooperation between law enforcement agencies and advised the Indian delegation that the resources in Anti-Terrorism Assistance programme of the U.S. State Department could be used for building capacities to address issues like use of Internet by terrorists.

India also made a request for acquisition of appropriate technology to address cyber threats and waiver of restrictions on the export of such commodities and the U.S. delegation gave the assurance that it will take it up with departments concerned in the U.S., it said.